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GE CFO sees alternatives to SLM 3D printing purchase

NEW YORK – General Electric Co can build its 3D printing capability without buying Germany's SLM Solutions
and does not need to increase its takeover offer in light of opposition from a major shareholder, GE Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bornstein said on Friday.

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GE refused on Friday to extend or change its 38-euro-a-share offer for SLM after activist investor Elliott Advisors, which owns 20 percent of SLM, said it would reject GE's offer. The offer expires on Monday.

"We have options and alternatives," Bornstein told Reuters in an interview. "We don't have to do SLM. We'd like to. We like the company, we like the technology, we like the people."

Shareholders representing 31.5 percent have already pledged to back GE's bid. The offer requires a minimum 75 percent acceptance to succeed, so Elliott's reported holdings alone would not be enough to block the deal.

Both companies make industrial-scale 3D printers used in aerospace, healthcare and other industries and which both count GE as their biggest customer.

GE is using 3D printing to make fuel nozzles for new CFM LEAP aircraft engines that power the latest Airbus and Boeing single-aisle airplanes. CFM is a joint venture of GE and Safran SA of France.

GE said on Friday that the LEAP engine, now flying on a handful of Airbus A320neo jets, was performing well, with 100 percent reliability in allowing aircraft to depart on time.

Bornstein declined to say whether the LEAP engine performance had led to more orders but noted the recent decision by Qatar Airways to sign a letter of intent to buy up to 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which might be used to supplant orders for A320neos equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines .